Life Sciences Cafe: Gabriel Zentner

"How do cells maintain molecular memories through mitosis?"

Presenter: Gabriel Zentner, assistant professor of biology, Indiana University

Mitosis in eukaryotic cells is accompanied by drastic changes in cellular architecture and gene expression. Chromosomes are dramatically condensed, the nuclear envelope breaks down, and transcription is largely repressed. Furthermore, most chromatin-binding factors are evicted from the genome. Maintenance of cellular identity across cell divisions thus necessitates rapid reestablishment of a specific chromatin structure and transcriptional program following mitosis.

The heritability of cell type-specific chromatin and transcriptional programs across cellular generations has been proposed to be dependent on the mitotic retention (that is, persistence of chromatin association in mitosis) of certain chromatin-binding proteins, a mechanism termed mitotic bookmarking.

The Zentner lab studies mechanisms of mitotic retention using genetic and genomic techniques in mammalian cells. Current work focuses on an unusual mechanism by which phosphorylation of CTCF, a master regulator of chromatin architecture, promotes its association with mitotic chromatin.

1 p.m. Seminar
2 p.m. Treat and Greet

View the livestream at asunow.asu.edu/asulive.